- By Simeon Brown, MP for Pakuranga
Last week, the Labour Government announced they were rebranding their Three Waters reforms in an attempt to make it more palatable to New Zealanders.
The problem with this is it’s not the name Kiwis are frustrated with, it’s Labour’s continued attempts to centralise assets that have no business being taken out of local hands.
More importantly, it doesn’t actually solve our water infrastructure issues. All Labour changed in their reforms was increasing the number of entities that will manage water assets from four to 10.
Regional representative groups – that comprise of 50 per cent Māori representation – would then decide who sits on the boards of those entities, with a central Entity Management organisation at the top making all the actual decisions.
These are the same reforms Labour have been trying to push through this whole time, with a new coat of paint and a few more water entities than before.
National agrees we need greater investment into our water assets to ensure they are maintained in a safe and sustainable way for the future.
That’s why we announced our ‘Local Water Done Well’ policy, with real investment into our water infrastructure and stronger central government oversight, but without taking it away from local councils and the communities they represent.
We will require councils to ring-fence money for water infrastructure investment and maintenance instead of spending it on whatever they want and will ensure water services are both environmentally and financially sustainable for future generations.
One of the major issues Kiwis have expressed with Labour’s reforms is that it has never been explained how co-governance helps deliver better water services.
National is strongly of the belief that all New Zealanders should be treated equally in the delivery of public services and that co-governance fundamentally undermines the democratic accountability of these public services.
Co-governance will also only lead to more bureaucracy, something New Zealand needs far less of, and we are already seeing examples of this with the $1 million a month spent on consultants for the new Māori Health Authority.
National opposes the co-governance of public services. We believe all New Zealanders should be treated equally and that we will repeal Labour’s co-governance proposals.
It’s time for Labour to stop their ideological crusade and make policy decisions based on what will actually deliver results for Kiwis
